Beatles' manager Brian Epstein subject of two films

Tom Hanks will produce a film about Beatles' manager Brian Epstein.

The small but vocal group of fans who have long demanded that more attention should be paid to the achievements of Beatles manager Brian Epstein are finally being heard.

Forty-five years after Epstein's death from what was ruled an accidental drug overdose, not one but TWO film biographies are in the works, one of them based on a graphic novel and the other to be produced by Tom Hanks, who lately has been faring better as a producer than an actor.

Hanks's movie will star the busy Benedict Cumberbatch as Epstein, the mild-mannered, dapper Jewish homosexual who was running his family's Liverpool furniture and record store when he heard the Beatles perform a lunchtime show at the Cavern Club and decided to become their manager.

The movie will be competing with The Fifth Beatle, based on a coming graphic novel. Although no casting has been announced, the movie, written by the novel's author Vivek Tiwary, has secured music rights to the Beatles songs.

No word yet on whether either screenplay will delve into the long-rumoured homosexual liaison between Epstein and John Lennon.